MORGANTOWN – West Virginia could grow by three new counties if a request from several Maryland legislators comes to fruition.
Gov. Jim Justice said during a Friday virtual announcement that the legislators from Garrett, Allegany, and Washington counties recently wrote a pair of letters to the West Virginia House speaker and Senate president asking the West Virginia Legislature to consider adding them.
They wrote, “We believe this arrangement may be mutually beneficial for both states and for our local constituencies.”
Justice said he is looking at calling a special session for the Legislature to pass a resolution to make the offer to join official.
“We’re absolutely standing here with open arms,” Justice said. “We’d welcome absolutely these counties and be tickled to death to have them and the great folks of that incredible state.”
Justice has timed special sessions this year to correspond with legislative interims meetings. The next interims are set for Nov. 14-16.
Justice and other state legislators talked at length about all that West Virginia has to offer: the solid economy and Rainy Day Fund, tourism opportunities, and the growth potential.
“We’ve got it going on in West Virginia right now, that’s all there is to it,” Justice said. “You would absolutely see greatness going on all around you … with the chance to live in paradise.”
He pointed out that “we’re not going out and looking to try to recruit counties from other states to West Virginia.” But he’d received many calls for comment following the Maryland legislators’ request.
The addition of the three counties would add 251,617 people to the state, Justice said.
House Government Organization chair Gary Howell, R-Mineral, lives in the area bordering the three Maryland counties. He said that one of the legislators contacted him about two resolutions that came before the West Virginia Legislature in 2020 regarding bring portions of Virginia into the state (SCR 2, which died in the House, and HCR 8, which died after adoption by Howell’s committee.
The Maryland legislator, Howell said, wanted to know if there’d be some interest in welcoming the three Maryland counties. That led to the legislator coming to Charleston to meet with him and Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, and House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay.
Blair said his wife works in Washington County, and the state boundaries are artificial. “In reality our communities cross over. … This is a bit that would work very well for the people in both West Virginia and Maryland if we did this. … This just goes to show that the work we’ve been doing in West Virginia has been paying dividends.”
Hanshaw said, “Certainly West Virginia is an easy choice.” There’s been substantial progress in the last three to four years. “It is an easy choice to say that West Virginia is the best place to live, work and raise your families.”
Justice told the residents that West Virginia is here to help then thrive. “We’re not going to stand there with red tape in the way. We’re not going to wrap you so tight with red tape you’d be rather bubble wrapped.”
Justice elaborated on the topic a bit more during his subsequent COVID-19 briefing in answer to a question about how Maryland would be compensated for the loss.
He said he believes payments would be stretched out over 40 years, and the the tax base of the three counties would provide sufficient dollars to compensate Maryland.
He believes those residents want to come. Turning political, he said, “I bet you that the powers that be in Maryland would love to see those people migrate away,” because their loss would solidify Democratic power in the state.
The letter came from Maryland state Sen. George Edwards and Delegates Wendell Beitzel, Jason Buckel, Mike McKay and William Wivell.
The Associated Press reported that the office of Maryland’s Republican governor hadn’t been aware of lawmakers’ plans to send the letter, Gov. Larry Hogan spokesman Michael Ricci told The Washington Post.
“This has probably left a lot of people confused — including many Western Marylanders,” he said. “We certainly hope that the legislators will provide some clarity here.”
The move to West Virginia, AP reported, would require referendums and approvals from lawmakers in both states as well as from the U.S. Congress.
“There’s almost zero chance of this ever occurring,” Buckel, who heads the GOP caucus in the Maryland House of Delegates, told The Baltimore Sun. He said he hopes it will remind lawmakers to give more consideration to the needs of the western Maryland counties.
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